Professional Sports workflow and Capture One.

I'm a semi pro sports photographer, shooting Premier League Football (soccer) in England, where, as you probably know images are wired pitchside to newspapers and have to be sent very very quickly.My current workflow is this ... Ingest using Photomechanic, cull, then drag and drop into Lightroom. They are imported into Lightroom with a preset, I then edit, say crop, straighten, clarity, noise redustion, sharpening. They are then exported as a jpeg to a folder. I then open again in Photomechanic, caption and upload to newspapers.

I have been looking at Capture one and so far, I'm impressed with it.

Can it be used instead of Lightroom in my workflow? Is C1 as quick importing, editing and exporting say ten images as Lightroom (learning curve accepted)?

In case you decide to stay with LR. Which version are you using? The latest version - LR Classic CC has a new import feature called Embedded and Sidecar. This shows the Jpeg previews you see on your camera's LCD. Designed for instant culling while the Standard previews build. It comes with the subscription model and some don't like it which is fine. It is not for everyone.

You probably use the same several ISO's. With any version of LR you can set it up so clarity, noise reduction, sharpening, lens corrections, colour profile all auto apply during import. You just have to figure out on average how much sharpening and NR you like at the ISO's you most often use.

Just in case people are thinking this I'm not trying to convince you to stay with Adobe. Just some pointers to speed things up for you. C1 is a good developer and auto applies some of the things I mentioned. Good for if you choose it.

Interesting, my workflow was exactly as yours is and I have just begun doing exactly what you are asking about. Photo Mechanic --> C1 --> Photo Mechanic.

In my (so far limited) experience with it, I have found that I am slightly faster with the C1 workflow in place of LR. I have found that the auto adjust in C1 works so well that I rarely need any other adjustments. Then simply crop and fire them back into Photo Mechanic. Exporting from C1 back to photo mechanic is faster than LR. The only thing that I am kind of struggling with in C1 is the crop and rotate tools. They are separate and work different than in LR. The RAW converter of C1 is so much better than LR though.

I am still learning my way around C1, and there are definitely some things I miss from LR (like plugins and some of my presets that I have not yet been able to recreate in C1), but overall I have been impressed enough to keep at it.

I would say give it a shot and see for yourself. I did a few trial runs at home before I tried it on an actual assignment.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #18540219Learning curve aside, I find the C1 engine to run much faster than LR on every computer build I have ever used.

I tested it twice and yes the export of one file was instant and LR takes about 6 seconds. I'm not sure if that is because everything has been done ahead of time in C1 and LR resizes, sharpens, etc during export. I can't remember if I resized before exporting with C1. That is in October but it did surprise me.

I only edited one file at a time so I don't how it compares to importing multiple files. My guess exporting would be about the same.

Did you go for version 11? I remember the new layers in that version peaked your interest.

Thanks for all your replies and input. With no preset applied in C 1, I find images imported are superior, richer colour etc. than achieved in LR. However I just imported 140 images and it was considerably faster in LR than importing to C 1, considerably!However, I would then have to spend time editing the LR images to get them to the C 1 quality. Exporting is my next test.

I did a quick export from C 1 last night and one fabulous feature I found (still learning!) is you can 'say open in Photomechanic'. That is so useful, as I currently export from LR, then have to open a contact sheet in PM, no, not a long operation but when it's done automatically, then wow!

If the export time, converting to JPeg is quicker then I could be get the plastic out!!

C1 applies it's own colour which is richer than LR - Adobe Standard. I use Canon's Camera Standard Profile with my own tweaks that auto applies during import and I could get the same results. This included NR, sharpening, etc.

C1 is much closer to a final product - out of the box - than LR is but I can get it to match pretty easily. I also asked what LR version you had because new updated auto feature has been improved. I have set it up so it also auto applies on import. Basically I have an import to export workflow with little intervention if I want that.

It takes more effort to set everything up with LR. That was one thing I liked about C1 when I tried it.

As DP said above, there is an way to apply settings on import. I don't use it, but I know it's there.

If speed is the primary concern, I might try tweaking Canon Picture Styles and working with out of camera JPG images ... skipping any editor. The different looks available might be more varied than you think.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #18541365As DP said above, there is an way to apply settings on import. I don't use it, but I know it's there.

If speed is the primary concern, I might try tweaking Canon Picture Styles and working with out of camera JPG images ... skipping any editor. The different looks available might be more varied than you think.

I have all this stuff set up to auto apply but I reverse other things. I have presets to undo these adjustments rather than apply them. I don't always agree with LR's Auto decisions but am learning what makes it tick. Saves time with black and white clipping, shadows and highlights. Something I'd do anyway.

Dj Silver wrote in post #18541345I did a quick export from C 1 last night and one fabulous feature I found (still learning!) is you can 'say open in Photomechanic'. That is so useful, as I currently export from LR, then have to open a contact sheet in PM, no, not a long operation but when it's done automatically, then wow!

You can have lightroom do this too. In the export dialog, the last tab is post processing, you can tell photo mechanic to open the exported photos in a contact sheet when done.

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